4 ms·

One of my main interview questions is: Tell me about a time you thought you were going to get fired. I want to hear about the bug they deployed, the customer i

One of my main interview questions is: Tell me about a time you thought you were going to get fired. I want to hear about the bug they deployed, the customer issue, dropping the database, etc. I want to hear about how they realized their mistake and what they do differently as a result now. Basically, "what did you learn from it?" Mine: I once dropped the article table for [major news organization] which handled [large number] of updates each day. It was something stupid like "delete from articles where id = ~" and when it took more than a second, I realized my issue.. damage done. Now, I avoid running sql queries directly whenever possible in favor of migrations. But I test those migrations on smaller/test databases which are normally backups of production to have the same structure, etc. And I always do a select first to make sure I get the results I expect.. then change it into a delete or update.

gjtorikian 11y ago
That is an amazing interview question. What's the average reaction like? If I heard that I'd laugh, because it's so unexpected, and then tell a tale of woe that of course in hindsight I've learned from. However I can also see how the interviewee might be offended by it, so I'm wondering how people have responded to it (before stealing it for myself).
- caseysoftware 11y ago
  Sometimes I set a little more context before I ask but it's gone over pretty well. I think it acknowledges a simple truth: We all make mistakes. Some of them stunningly big and we think - even for a moment - "my boss is going to fire me!" And then once we calm down, we stop to think about what happened, how to fix it, and how to prevent it from ever happening again. And if you claim to have never made one, you're either a) lying, b) oblivious or c) so green that you'll make those mistakes with me. The first two reasons don't fly with me.
  - derekp7 11y ago
    Or, d) so overly cautious that barely any work gets done at all, due to too many precautions slowing you down. But seriously, I can't think of any time in the past 25 years where I thought "This is going to get me fired"... with one exception. At a medical related company, I got in a blow-up shouting match with a director that was trying to get me to cut a three day procedure down to less than one day. The only way this could happen is if I rushed through everything and "hoping it was done right", vs. double checking not only my work, but everyone else's inputs also. Long story short, I cornered that director some time after the meeting, apologized profusely, and explained that I'm overly sensitive to mistakes in this position since I witnessed first-hand what happened when a predecessor of mine made a "simple" error, which resulted in a major patient-impacting event (which resulted in an FDA investigation). The upshot is that this director, from that point on, trusted me more than anyone else on the team (even though I was "highly insubordinate" in the previous meeting).
hyperpape 11y ago
It's an interesting question, but I confess I have never thought I would get fired for a bug I committed. Hopefully I'd reinterpret it on the spot.

gjtorikian 11y ago

That is an amazing interview question. What's the average reaction like? If I heard that I'd laugh, because it's so unexpected, and then tell a tale of woe that of course in hindsight I've learned from. However I can also see how the interviewee might be offended by it, so I'm wondering how people have responded to it (before stealing it for myself).

caseysoftware 11y ago
Sometimes I set a little more context before I ask but it's gone over pretty well. I think it acknowledges a simple truth: We all make mistakes. Some of them stunningly big and we think - even for a moment - "my boss is going to fire me!" And then once we calm down, we stop to think about what happened, how to fix it, and how to prevent it from ever happening again. And if you claim to have never made one, you're either a) lying, b) oblivious or c) so green that you'll make those mistakes with me. The first two reasons don't fly with me.
- derekp7 11y ago
  Or, d) so overly cautious that barely any work gets done at all, due to too many precautions slowing you down. But seriously, I can't think of any time in the past 25 years where I thought "This is going to get me fired"... with one exception. At a medical related company, I got in a blow-up shouting match with a director that was trying to get me to cut a three day procedure down to less than one day. The only way this could happen is if I rushed through everything and "hoping it was done right", vs. double checking not only my work, but everyone else's inputs also. Long story short, I cornered that director some time after the meeting, apologized profusely, and explained that I'm overly sensitive to mistakes in this position since I witnessed first-hand what happened when a predecessor of mine made a "simple" error, which resulted in a major patient-impacting event (which resulted in an FDA investigation). The upshot is that this director, from that point on, trusted me more than anyone else on the team (even though I was "highly insubordinate" in the previous meeting).

hyperpape 11y ago

It's an interesting question, but I confess I have never thought I would get fired for a bug I committed. Hopefully I'd reinterpret it on the spot.